Fox's X-Men, Wolverine and Fantastic Four franchises enlist help from comic writer Mark Millar in a "Joss Whedon-like" creative consultant role

Sourced from ComicBookMovie.com
By Daniel Wolf
Editor-in-Chief

Marvel Studios was smart when they locked down writer/director Joss Whedon until after The Avengers 2 comes out in May 2015 so he can help oversee the direction of Marvel's Phase 2 of their cinematic superhero universe. It's seems other studios have taken notes and are doing the same.

Comic writer Mark Millar (who also wrote the comic versions of Kick-Ass and Wanted before they were even movies) has been signed on as a creative consultant to 20th Century Fox and to help oversee the direction of the studio's X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises.

Here's the full, unedited press release from Fox:

Marking an expanded commitment to some of its most important franchises, Twentieth Century Fox has brought on comics superstar Mark Millar to serve as a creative consultant on the studio’s upcoming projects based on Marvel Comics properties.

Millar wrote several celebrated Marvel books such as The Ultimates, Civil War and Wolverine: Old Man Logan, before moving on to found Millarworld (millarworld.tv), where he continues to develop existing film franchise titles Wanted and Kick-Ass, as well as newer comic properties The Secret Service, Superior, and Nemesis — the latter also in development at Fox. Millar will work with Fox on developing new avenues for its "X-Men" and "Fantastic Four" tentpoles.

Commented TCF production president Emma Watts: “We are excited to be working with Mark. In addition to his groundbreaking Marvel work, he is simply one of the most original voices in comics today and will be an invaluable resource to us and to our filmmakers as we look for fresh opportunities to innovate within our shared Marvel universe."

Upcoming for the studio is THE WOLVERINE, starring Hugh Jackman, directed by James Mangold; X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, helmed by Matthew Vaughn; and a reboot of “FANTASTIC FOUR, to be directed by Josh Trank (Chronicle).

“As someone who has spent his entire life obsessed with both comic-books and movies, this is essentially my dream gig as it's a unique combination of both,” stated Millar. “I spent ten years working at Marvel and am really happy with the work I did on the comic side of things so the idea of working with these characters now in a brand new medium is enormously exciting for me. I really like the Fox team, love this bold new direction they have for their franchises and am proud to be working alongside some of modern cinema's biggest talents. James Mangold is incredible, Matthew Vaughn's one of my closest pals and Josh Trank gave us, in my opinion, one of the greatest superhero movies of the last decade with Chronicle. The invitation to join this crew was maybe the coolest phone-call I've ever had.”

About Mark Millar Mark Millar is the writer of Civil War, Marvel's biggest-selling series of the fifteen years, Ultimate X-Men, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four and The Ultimates (described by Time magazine in 2010 as the best comic series of the decade). His Millarworld line of comics boasts a roster of creator-owned books such as Wanted, turned into a blockbuster movie starring Angelina Jolie; Kick-Ass, which starred Nicolas Cage; and Nemesis, which Fox is presently developing as a theatrical feature. Kick-Ass 2 is currently filming in London and Toronto, starring Jim Carrey and Chris Mintz-Plasse and Universal is also developing his War Heroes series with Mike DeLuca producing. The Secret Service, co-created with Watchmen legend Dave Gibbons and X-Men First Class director Matthew Vaughn, is also currently indevelopment. In his native UK, he's the editor of CLiNT magazine, an advisor on film to the Scottish government and managing director of his film and television company Millarworld Productions."

About 20th Century Fox Film One of the world’s largest producers and distributors of motion pictures, 20th Century Fox Film produces, acquires and distributes motion pictures throughout the world. These motion pictures are produced or acquired by the following units: Twentieth Century Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox International Productions and Twentieth Century Fox Animation.

Millar is not only known for his original comic stories becoming major motion pictures but he has written a ton of Marvel comics too. Especially the X-Men and Fantastic Four comic books. He's even written in both the standard Marvel universe and in their Ulitmate universe as well. (Check out his Marvel bibliography here.)

This is the guy whose influence in the comic book The Ultimates have Marvel Studios' cinematic universe a ton of cannon to pull from. Heck, Millar is the one who wrote Nick Fury as being a Samuel L. Jackson look-a-like. In other words, Fox adding Millar is simply put as being a brilliant move.








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